NBC’s Unforgettable Fantasy Series Is Surging on Streaming 61 Years Later

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The great prophet Forrest Gump once said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.” The same can be said of the Apple TV store’s Top 10 shows, where alongside current heavy hitters like House of the Dragon are old TV series like Beverly Hills, 90210 or Charlie’s Angels that rise from the ashes to prominence once again. Yet you certainly wouldn’t expect that within Apple TV Store’s chocolate box is a 61-year-old series, famously censored for the silliest of reasons at the time, centered around a seemingly subservient blond woman. But sure enough, there on theApple TV store’s Top 10 listis the iconic fantasy sitcomI Dream of Jeannie, and it’s easy to understand why.

A Genie Grants an Astronaut Wishes, Whether He Wants Them or Not, in ‘I Dream of Jeannie’

Astronaut Captain Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman) returns to Earth from his space flight in Stardust One, a one-man capsule. Only where he lands, on a deserted island, is significantly far from where he was supposed to land. He is stranded, lost, and help is not coming anytime soon. As he ponders his predicament, a strange-looking bottle rolls towards him by itself. He picks it up, opens the stopper, and starts rubbing the sand off of it. Inexplicably, smoke shoots out of the bottle to reveal a beautiful blond woman in pink, harem-style attire, who gives him a big, passionate kiss that surprises him.

Unfortunately, she only speaks Persian, and Tony does not, so she’s unable to explain her mysterious presence. That is, until Tony wishes aloud that she could speak English, which she then starts doing immediately. She explains her name is Jeannie (Barbara Eden), and that she is, in fact, a genie. He’s hesitant, but rolls the dice and wishes for a recovery helicopter to show up to rescue him. Sure enough, Jeannie procures a helicopter, and a grateful Tony says farewell to Jeannie, telling her she’s free.

Only it’slove at first sightfor Jeannie, especially after being trapped for 2,000 years.So she goes back into her bottle, rolls it into his bag, and follows him home, where Tony is forced to accept that he didn’t hallucinate the whole experience. From there, the series follows their journey together, where Jeannie unfailingly causes trouble with her magic, done with the best of intentions for her “master,” leaving Tony left to try and cover up the fallout, a formula that kept the series alive for five seasons.

‘I Dream of Jeannie’ Is Timeless

I Dream of Jeannie is very much like its rivalBewitched, with both series centered around a woman with magic powers and their hapless partner. In fact, some elements crossed over between the two shows, most notably the addition of a twin (Elizabeth Montgomery played both Samantha and her mischievous twin cousin Serena, while Eden played the evil twin sister Jeannie II), a byproduct of having similar premises and shared writers. But where Bewitched‘s Samantha was seen as a strong female character who subverted 1960s expectations, Jeannie was subservient to her “master,” Tony, a more traditional gender role of the time.

Or was she? Yes, she called Tony “master,” but her devotion to him is out of love, not obligation. She chooses to be with him. Furthermore, Jeannie consistently played by her own rules, often outright dismissive of Tony’s attempts to rein her in. She treated conventional housewife duties as a lark, using her magic to accomplish them. In other words, Jeannie is the one in control of the relationship, not Tony. As such, the series works as a mocking subversion of traditional gender roles, much like its TV rival, and is part of the reason why it is still relevant to today’s audiences.

But the biggest reason whyI Dream of Jeannielands on the Top 10 list 61 years after its debut is this: chemistry. Eden is effortlessly charming with perfect comedic timing, and imbues Jeannie with a nuanced independence that deepens and grounds her, while Hagman is the perfect, incompetent straight man, whose exasperation is relatable. Together, they create a dynamic “will they/won’t they” chemistry that stands with television’s most iconic pairings, the likes of Cheers‘ Sam and Diane or Friends‘ Ross and Rachel. It’s a natural, strong bond that is truly rare, timeless, and irresistible, explored in a genuinely funny, lighthearted series ahead of its time. If you question that, consider this: in an era where married couples were the norm, the idea that an unmarried man and woman were living together was borderline scandalous. Not nearly as scandalous, however, as Barbara Eden’s belly button, which NBC’s Standards and Practices Department decided could not be visible on air.